“Some books are really difficult to find, like Requiem by Antonio Tabucchi. The author is Italian, so one might expect it to be in the ‘foreign books’ section of the bookstore. But it was written in Portuguese, so it’s not in a foreign language. It was very tricky to find a copy… We finally tracked one down on a used books blog. It’s funny, I used to read a lot, but now that I found Diogo, I mostly just recommend books to him.” – Pietro Vertechi

Pietro grew up in Rome. He studied in Pisa and Paris before moving to the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown (CCU), where he is comparing the effects of serotonin across species. He imports parmesan and smoked pork cheeks every time he travels from Italy. His secret talent is chess. Diogo is from Sobralinho, a town along the Tagus river. He is a research technician in a lab studying sexual behavior in mice. He enjoys tinkering with digital art for video games and Ar in a Bar events. His secret talent is hula hooping. The two met at the CCU and bonded over too literal translations of the names of Portuguese food, such as the seafood dish called cadelinhas, or “little female dogs”.